TIGER III News Begins to Leak — Chicago Bike-Share Among the Winners

U.S. DOT is officially announcing the winners of the third round of TIGER grants tomorrow, but they give the news to members of Congress first so those members can brag about all the bacon they bring home. See below for a list of the grants we know about so far.

Chicago’s Blue Line and bike-share are splitting a $20 million award. The Blue Line work will eliminate slow zones on 3.6 miles of deteriorated track between downtown and O’Hare Airport. The money will also help jumpstart Chicago’s first large-scale bike sharing program, set to launch in the spring with 3,000 bikes.

TIGER isn’t exclusively for non-automobile focused projects, but its focus on innovation and regional significance has led to significant funding for transit and active transportation. For example, in addition to the $20 million for the projects in Chicago, Illinois also netted $13.85 million for a regional multi-modal transportation center adjacent to the new Amtrak high-speed rail station in Alton — as well as roadwork on Illinois Route 83.

Your link on the last item should read “U.S. Highway 101 improvements”. US 1 is on the east coast.

ga73

aw: it’s CA State Highway 1.

aw

Not according to the linked page. It’s US 101 in CA district 1.

http://stopandmove.blogspot.com/ Jass

Thats quite the list of road projects

Chris Loos

What about the Broadway Streetcar in Downtown LA? I know they applied for a $35 million grant.

Dennis Hindman

Chicago is kicking butt when it comes to aggressively trying to increase the rate of cycling in the city. First their new mayor, Rahm Emmanuel, stated he is going to create 100 miles of protected bike lanes in the next four years and now they have received $10 million in funds from a TIGER grant to start a bicycle sharing program by the summer of 2012. Since protected bike lanes are more attractive for cycling within a wider range of demographics than unprotected lanes, and bicycle sharing gives people an opportunity to cycling, who may not even own a bicycle, I’d expect Chicago to quickly start moving up towards the top five cities in terms of bike commuters on the annual Census survey.